Bean counter: O'Keefe offers case study of NASA don't

BEAN COUNTERDeparting NASA Administrator O'Keefe's tenure offers a case study that warns us what the space agency shouldn't do next

Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

Published 6:30 am, Sunday, December 19, 2004

For an agency that lives on the cutting edge of technology, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has a surprisingly pervasive history of repeating its mistakes. The most egregious instance was the loss of two space shuttle crews in mishaps that stemmed from hauntingly similar failures to detect safety flaws.

With the departure of NASA's top gun, Sean O'Keefe, to the chancellorship of Louisiana State University, the Bush administration should take a critical look at events during his tenure to make sure the agency doesn't have to go through the same blunders again.

A former secretary of the Navy and a bean counter at the Pentagon and the Office of Management and the Budget, O'Keefe succeeded the confrontational Dan Goldin. O'Keefe was at the helm when the Columbia disintegrated over Texas, killing seven crew members. No one blames him for the long-rooted culture of agency complacency and discouragement of boat-rocking that contributed to the disaster, but O'Keefe's handling of the follow-up investigation sparked intense criticism that continued throughout his three years as administrator.

O'Keefe initially refused a formal request by the Columbia accident board to reassign key agency personnel who had a personal stake in the outcome of the probe. He eventually changed his tune, saying, "It is apparent that our original structure to support the investigation needs to transition." It's an understatement reminiscent of a flight controller's classic characterization of the Challenger explosion as "obviously a major malfunction."

Last year, all nine members of a panel of outside experts established by Congress to advise NASA on safety matters resigned. Several claimed they had little influence with the agency. After problems cropped up involving medical equipment and air and water quality monitoring devices on the international space station, Texas Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson blasted O'Keefe for failing to answer her questions concerning safety. "My major concern is leadership," she snapped, "and he doesn't seem to have a grasp."

Most recently, O'Keefe's rejection of a shuttle mission to renovate the aging Hubble Space Telescope contradicted the conclusions of outside experts NASA appointed to study the issue. After first declining to do nothing to keep the celebrated telescope functioning past its projected failure in two years, under pressure O'Keefe then embraced the idea of sending an unmanned mission to the station with a robotic handyman. Independent aeronautics experts quickly told reporters that such technology could not be operational before the telescope ceased functioning. According to former astronaut Walt Cunningham, "I do not know a single former astronaut in agreement with O'Keefe's obstinate stand on abandoning the Hubble."

Longtime NASA observer and writer Alcestis "Cookie" Oberg believes "the arrogant, defensive, know-it-all NASA culture that was blamed for the Columbia disaster by the panel that investigated the calamity has not been changed or reformed by O'Keefe. President Bush will need to appoint a no-nonsense NASA administrator who has the technical background to understand space systems and the implications of his decisions."

Now that NASA is embarking on an ambitious, long-term program to return humans to the moon and beyond, the agency clearly needs a leader of vision, passion and expertise in the field. Reports indicate the recently retired director of the Pentagon's Missile Defense System, Lt. General Ronald T. Kadish, is a frontrunner.

Instead of putting a military mind at the top of a civilian space agency, why not look to the roster of past civilian astronauts, people with the intellect, charisma and experience of the first American woman in space, Sally Ride? Who better could sell NASA's programs to Congress and the American people?

What NASA does not need is another administrator who can count the beans but can't see to the stars.